1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an animal litter in which a light weight aggregate acts as a carrier for a clumping agent, a surfactant and an odor control agent.
2. Brief Description of Related Art
Because of the growing number of domestic animals used as house pets, there is a need for litters so that the animals may void or otherwise eliminate liquid or solid waste indoors in a controlled location. However, inevitably, waste build-up leads to malodor production.
In order to be useful in animal litter, materials must have good water or moisture absorbency and should have the capacity to eliminate or substantially reduce odors, particularly ammoniacal odors which normally result from animal waste.
Various clays, such as those based on the clay minerals kaoline, illite, attapulgite and the like have been used extensively in animal litter compositions due to their water and moisture absorbing properties. However such clays have very little, if any deodorizing properties. Furthermore they present disposal problems and add to the land-fill dilemma in many urban areas. Other clay-based litters are heavy making them difficult to physically carry and to dispose of.
Efforts to reduce ammoniacal odors have resulted in the use of masking agents such as pine oil, but such agents have minimal effectiveness as a function of time and sometime with negative effect, such as the animal resisting using the litter because the fragrance while pleasant to humans is offensive to the animal, particularly cats.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a light weight animal control litter that is organic and may be disposed of by flushing the litter down a commode.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an animal control litter containing an odor free odor control agent which prevents the production of ammoniacal odors.